THE TAPESTRY AT MINTERNE HOUSE. 



The tapestry at Minterne House was placed there hy General Charles 

 Churchill, who died in 1714. 



Canon Ravenhill wrote of it in Vol. X of the "Transactions," p. 92-3, as 

 follows : 



" The living rooms consisted, according to the inventory, taken in 1768 (when 

 Admiral Digby purchased the place), of common parlour, &c., the tapestry par- 

 lour (the latter, perhaps, the same as now, for the tapestry fits the walls very 



well), and the blue dainask parlour General Churchill is said 



to have enlarged and improved the house very much. The tapestry in the 

 drawing-room and two bedrooms was a present to him (General Charles 

 Churchill) from the States of Holland, when he was Governor of Brussels, as an 

 acknowledgment for services he had rendered there. The tapestry in the bed- 

 room (called the Orange Room) has the Churchill Coat- of -Arms on it." 



Very little more information is procurable, for the MS. book in the handwrit- 

 ing of the late Lady Digby, from which Canon Ravenhill obtained these particu- 

 lars, cannot be found. 



Of the subjects illustrated in the following pages, No. 1, " The Fishing Boats," 

 and No. 2, "The Village Fete," are after Teniers, and the probability is that 

 this is old Flemish tapestry. The subjects of the other three are classical, or 

 idyllic, and the treatment after the French school of painting ;' and it has been 

 suggested that these tapestries were produced at the Gobelin factories, under the 

 direction of the famous French artist Lebrun. Those who are skilled in ancient 

 needlework must decide the point. 



The dimensions of the tapestries are : 



No. 1 "Fishing Boats" 9ft. Oin. x 8ft. Gin. 



No. 2 " Village Fete " (dancing) .. . 16ft. Gin. x 8ft. Gin. 



No. 3 "Blind Man's Buff " 13ft. Oin. x 6ft. 6in. 



No. 4 "Cupid, Figures, and Fountain" .. 15ft. Sin. x 6ft. 6in. 

 No. 5 " Figures, with Flowers & Rainbow " lift. Oin. x 6ft. 6in. 



The first two, with two more, are in the tapestry room, the three latter in the 

 Nursery. 



No. 6. The tapestry which covers the chairs in the large drawing-room, is, also, 

 of great interest. An expert in art work, to whom the original photograph of 

 No. 6 was shown, considers the work to be of very high artistic value. It is 

 generally believed to be Gobelin tapestry. The chairs were given by Lady 

 Caroline Kerrison to the late Lord Digby, and were brought to Minterne from 

 her old home in Suffolk. 



The photographs for the blocks, from which the plates are printed, were made 

 under great difficulties by the hon. secretary (Mr. N. M. Richardson) ; they are 

 admirable representations of very difficult subjects. 



